Wi-Fi networks are widely-available and used more often with the growth of mobile devices. These networks operate under standards such as IEEE 802.11 (promulgated by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), and others (e.g., Hot Spot 2.0). Management of these networks will become more burdensome and complex with increasing loads and numbers of connections.
Wi-Fi controllers are coupled to access points of a communication network in order to manage connections with stations seeking access to a backbone network, including the Internet. One aspect of management is the assignment and tracking of BSSIDs (Basic Service Set Identifiers) that identify access points to stations for traffic flows.
However, these protocols are limited to managing wireless connections from stations. No consideration is given to the wired backbone that supports the wireless portion of a communication network. Further, the management techniques can be limited to control layer aspects of wireless networking. Additionally, the widely-dispersed access points make data plane decisions primarily from a local perspective, due to limited visibility under conventional techniques.
What is needed is a robust technique to automatically provision wireless communication networks based on characteristics data plane layer. The provisioning should control which access points to which specific stations connect, by controlling data plane routing decisions.